For Future Reference
by musicnotes093
Summary: As a part of Donald and Douglas' experiment, Leo travels back three years into the past. There, he meets his younger self and tells him of the things that lay ahead for him. (Post-Lab Rats.)


**Title:** _"_ _For Future Reference"_

 **Rating:** K+

 **Genre:** family, hurt/comfort (just a tad bit)

 **Character(s):** Leo, mostly, but also Donald, and Douglas

 **Pairing(s):** Leo/OC, Leo/Janelle – but they're both just mentioned

 **Summary:** As a part of Donald and Douglas' experiment, Leo travels back three years into the past. There, he meets his younger self and tells him of the things that lay ahead for him.

 **Notes:** I've had this idea for quite a while but never really got the strong desire to write it. Then a few nights ago, I got bored and a little sickly, so this happened. It's just something different to try. A lot of things have happened to Leo these past few years, and it'll just be interesting to see his younger self reacting to all the developments. Be noted, though, that not everything that will be brought out here is strictly canon. :)

Please enjoy!

* * *

Leo heaves a sigh as he watches his stepfather and his step-uncle fix the test suit. The excitement over this whole project have worn off about twenty minutes ago, and right now, he's more than ready to go back to the Academy with his friends, Adam, and his students. His impatience is only increased by the fact that what he's wearing is starting to make him sweat. It's an off-white, insulated material, almost reminiscent of what astronauts wear, but more fitting, much lighter, and easier to move in. His stepfather has explained that this outfit is specially designed to protect him from possible effects of the time travel process.

He thought at first that it looked so cool, and he even felt really privileged to wear it, but now? He just wants to rip the thing to shreds.

Douglas looks up with a displeased frown after hearing his sigh. "Don't tell me you're getting tired already," he says.

"No. I just want this over with," Leo responds.

Douglas scoffs bitterly. "Imagine if you have to actually do work on this project," he mumbles.

Leo frowns at him. Honestly, he still has to get used to his step-uncle's occasional grumpiness.

Donald stands up from fixing the left hem of the suit with a smile. "Okay, Leo. Everything looks great. Just give us a few minutes to set up everything, and then after that you can step into the capsule," he says, walking over to the large control panel standing behind the thick wall of glass separating the control room and the test room. "While you're waiting, try to see if there's anything we missed in the suit. It's important that there are no open spots in it."

"Okay," Leo says before wandering around that secluded area in Davenport Industries. He walks at a leisurely pace as he looks at the glass cases showcasing prototypes of some of his stepfather's most successful inventions lining the walls. Some of them he doesn't recognize but has heard of. Most of them, though, he has seen and has even tinkered with before. He stops at the glass case containing the neuro scrambler. "Hey, uh, Big D? This won't cause a ripple effect to the present, right?"

"If you stick with the plan, it should only have minor effect," Donald says, occupied with inputting codes to the system like what his younger brother is doing.

"Oh. Good to know."

"Plus, you're only going to be there for fifteen minutes the most," Donald adds while, unknown to him, his stepson is slowly lifting the glass case to take the neuro scrambler. As the teenager is slipping the device to one of the pockets in the suit, he says, "Your destination is the lab, so make sure to install the program in that flash drive Douglas gave you. That should erase any recordings of your arrival and eventually render your visit non-existent." He chuckles. "On record, at least."

When his stepfather turns around to look at him, Leo steps in front of the now empty glass case to hide it. He shrugs with a small grin. "Sounds like a winner," he says.

"Now, Leo, I can't emphasize enough how you should not leave anything that exists here in the present back in the past," Donald says as he resumes his work. "That could be very damaging to us."

"I got it, Big D," Leo says as he joins his stepfather and step-uncle. He smiles. "This is why you asked me to be the subject in this, right? Because you know I won't let you down?"

"No, we actually asked you because Chase is not available. Or Bree," Douglas says.

Donald gapes at his brother. "Douglas!"

Douglas only unremorsefully looks back at him.

Leo stares at his step-uncle. Then, "You know what…" he says as he begins unstrapping the suit.

"No, no, Leo. Please," Donald pleads with his son. He glares at Douglas before saying, "We need you in this project, okay? Just ignore Douglas. Someone just ruined his coffee this morning."

Douglas scoffs again.

Leo smirks. "You were trying to holler at that barista again, weren't you? Shut you down?" he asks as he secures the straps again.

Douglas clicks on a key unhappily then declares, "It's ready."

Leo smiles cheekily as he strides into the test room.

As the door connecting the two rooms slides close, Donald, his voice slightly fuzzy through the intercom, says, "Make sure the helmet's tightly screwed into the suit. You'll see the picture of the headgear blinking green, and that should tell you you're good to go."

Leo locates the image on the screen built into the helmet, and he sees the suit all lit green. "Yep. I'm set," he says. He proceeds into the wide capsule, twenty feet in diameter, sitting in the middle of the room. With a frown, he asks, "Big D? Why did you choose me?"

He sees his stepfather and step-uncle exchange glances. His stepfather sighs then tries to smile encouragingly. "Because you're the lightest between you and your brother," he says. Then, he adds, "And also because I know this is something you'd appreciate. In another time, in another reality, I sent you back in the past. I trusted you then, and I trust you still."

Leo smiles. "Okay."

"Make sure the suit is in good shape. Like Donny has told you, the machines we're using for this emit radiation," Douglas says.

"Not harmful radiation, right?" Leo says as he looks his suit over.

"Come on, Leo. Why would I subject you to something that could hurt you?" Donald asks with a wry smile.

"Oh, I know that you won't, Big D," Leo says. "But that touchy ex-madman beside you might."

Donald chuckles as he makes a few more adjustments at the controls.

Douglas only glowers at him.

A minute passes before Donald says, "Okay, are you good, Leo? Everything that you need is on you? Suit good? You're not gonna tell your mother about this, right?"

"Yes to all," Leo says.

"Alright," Donald says. "You know your destination—"

"Wait," Leo calls out, stopping both Donald and Douglas. "Can I, uh, ask for a favor?"

"Please don't tell me you need a bathroom break," Douglas says.

"No," Leo says. "I just want to know if I can suggest a date as my destination."

"And what date would that be?" Donald asks.

"February 27, 2013," Leo says. "Preferably at 7:30 at night."

Douglas frowns. "Why?"

A sad smile tugs at the teenager's lips. "Something important happened," he says. Looking at them sincerely, he adds, "There won't be anyone in the lab but me."

"Leo, you're not planning on doing anything you know you're not supposed to be doing, are you?" Donald asks.

He shakes his head. "No. I really like how things are going now. I won't do anything to endanger all of this," he says.

A pensive look comes on the inventor's face. He turns to his brother, and then asks him something quietly. His brother, also thoughtful, nods. "Alright," Donald says. "Give me two minutes."

Leo says nothing and only waits. As he does, he anxiously touches the pockets at both sides of his suit. He nearly jumps up when his stepfather asks, "Okay. We've adjusted everything. Are you ready?" "Hit it, Pops," he says with a nervous grin after taking a deep breath.

He sees Douglas click on something at the panel. A beep goes off overhead, followed by a whirring sound that slowly builds in volume. The metallic orbs attached to the capsule, each board of these both aimed towards where he stands, quivers quickly as they begin to glow. All the loud sounds and harsh lights scare him and make him anxious, but when he looks at his stepfather and sees him nod at him, the dreadful feelings subside.

He feels invisible waves hit him at both sides, and the screen in front of his eyes confirm that the first charge has collided with the suit, jolting the chemicals embedded in the rungs. He closes his eyes and keeps his stance. A few seconds afterwards, he feels a stronger push, almost causing him to lose his balance. He hears a beep from the helmet, but he doesn't have to look at the message on the screen to know that that second charge has activated half of the reserve, the ones that he will need to get back to the present.

The third charge activating the rest of the reserve, therefore setting the fifteen-minute timer on the suit, goes off sooner than he expects, and it knocks him off his feet. He crashes to the floor, forcing him to shield himself for the fall. He groans as he feels almost every part of him ache. _They sure those engines work well?,_ he asks himself as he slowly gets back up.

He wants to ask his stepfather and his step-uncle if they had set everything right when he sees that he's not in the test area of Davenport Industries anymore. Instead, he's standing at a room at the old lab – the maintenance room, to be exact. He looks around and absorbs the silence. It's been a while since he's seen this place. Three years. He can't believe it's been that long.

The screen built into the helmet reminds him that he has less than fifteen minutes to carry out what he needs to do, so he moves quickly. His stepfather has told him where the back-up computer was in the maintenance room, the one that he can use to override the security system, so he walks over to it. He clicks on a small, discreet button on the rock wall, which he didn't know was there when they still had that old lab, and to the right of it flips open a small computer screen and underneath it a keyboard with two USB docks on it.

Knowing that its slightly bulky material can only impede his work, he unzips his test suit after taking off his helmet. He steps out of it, leaving him in a dark blue suit. He withdraws the flash drive from the test suit pocket, plugs it into a dock, and then executes what he's been told to do.

Not long after, the computer gives him confirmation that the command he's inputted into the system has been received and that the action is already carried out.

He smiles triumphantly. He still has that good computer skill in him.

He glances at the specialized watch given to him by his stepfather after slipping the flash drive back to the pocket of the test suit, and there he sees that he still has twelve minutes to go. At first, he hesitates to do what he purposed to do. Then, quickly making up his mind, he grabs the necessary items from his test suit pockets, and then walks out of the room.

He didn't tell his stepfather and his step-uncle that he wants to come back to this day, to this night, because this is one of the times when he felt the loneliest. He didn't lie to them when he said that it was just going to be him at the lab. Technically, it _is_ just going to be him – just that there will be a seventeen year-old version and a fourteen year-old version. He still remembers this day because it was when he realized that his family would rather believe a stranger than believe him.

As he walks into the main lab, he sees his fourteen year-old self sitting at his stepfather's old desk, the one that he would delegate to him when he becomes the team's new mission specialist a few months later. The younger boy is playing on the swivel chair, swinging it disinterestedly back and forth as he stares at the computer screen with a sad look on his face. Leo smiles. "Life's not going as well as you thought it would, huh?" he asks.

His younger version spins back alertly. His eyes widen as he slowly gets up from the chair. "Whoa," the fourteen year-old says. "You're back again?"

Leo narrows his eyes despite the small grin on his face. "Yeah, I guess you can say that," he says as he walks towards him.

"You keep coming back—Well, no. _I_ keep coming back. Big D sent you back again." The boy frowns. "Is the future really that bad?"

He laughs. "No. Nothing's wrong with the future," he says. "Although, yes, you're right. Big D _did_ send me back, or send _us_ back. This time, it's just for an experiment he and Douglas are working on."

His fourteen year-old self frowns. "Douglas? Who's that?"

Leo smiles. "Your step-uncle."

"My step-uncle? Wait. Big D doesn't have a brother."

The smile on Leo's face widens.

"You're not twenty-one, are you?" the boy asks.

"No. From when I came from, I'm only a few months away from turning eighteen," he says.

"Really?" the fourteen year-old says. "But, we're tall already."

"Something to look forward to, isn't it?"

The fourteen year-old grins. "I'll say," he says. Slowly backing away towards the elevator, he says, "Ooh! Let me get Adam. I want to see how tall I will be compared to him when I turn seventeen."

"No, Leo. Don't," Leo says, and for the first time he realizes how strange it is to carry a conversation with his past self. "No one can know. Time is very delicate, and with this visit it's only you that can know."

The younger boy slightly deflates, but he doesn't seem too bothered. "Okay," he says, walking back to the swivel chair to sit back down. The empty look reappears on his face. "Can I ask you something? Are things going to get better?" he asks, looking up at the visitor.

Leo smiles a small smile. "We had a tough day today, didn't we?" he asks. "Marcus threatened us for the first time."

"They didn't believe me," the boy mumbles quietly.

"It's a good thing. It will keep them safe," Leo says.

"Keep them safe?"

"Marcus knows Adam, Bree, and Chase are bionic, and he's going to use that against you. About a week from now, he'll threaten to tell the authorities about them to keep you quiet."

"He knows about them?!" the fourteen year-old exclaims. "How?"

Leo looks around the lab. Douglas has told him where they had installed the bugs, and he said that the program he has created for his journey back in time will disable them, too. Leo points at the small camera. "They're watching," he says. He shrugs. "Or _were_ watching, actually. Any recording devices are temporarily disabled. Plus, he knows they're bionic because he's working with the person who created Adam, Bree, and Chase."

The fourteen year-old frowns. "He's working with Big D?"

Leo shakes his head. "Douglas. His dad."

"So, Marcus is Adam's, Bree's, and Chase's brother?"

Leo tilts his head. "Um, yeah, technically, but Big D adopted Adam, Bree, and Chase, so that actually makes them cousins by adoption, which also makes Marcus your step-cousin," he says. He waves a hand as he says, "It's all complicated, but I think you've known from day one that things are not gonna be normal in our family."

The fourteen year-old scratches his head. "Yeah, I guess," he says. "So, that's what Marcus wants me to keep quiet about, that he's related to them? I still don't see why he and D-Douglas…? Douglas, right? Yeah, I don't see why they're going to such great lengths to keep this a secret, and why they're going after me."

Leo takes a deep breath then walks over to the boy. He squats down so he could look him in the eye before he says, "Look, I know you're sad right now, and confused, which I didn't help with at all with all of these things I'm telling you, and you have the right to feel what you're feeling. But, dude, this is the point where you have to be strong and brave. A lot of things are coming your way, and I know, because you and I are practically the same, that you feel like the outsider. Believe it or not, that's what makes you important to them. You see things that they can't, and when they're at the end of their ropes, you will be the one to pull them back up. Like this, with Marcus? That's why you're a target. You are in the way.

"Here's the truth, and it will scare you: one week from now, Marcus will try to kill you. He won't succeed, because Adam, Bree, and Chase will save you, but that same night, Marcus will tell you that he's bionic." As he sees the fourteen year-old's eyes widen in fear, he says with a warm smile, "I know. That's why you also have to be smart. Recognize that there's a time for everything. Don't worry; it will play out well for all of us in the end."

The boy thinks about what he's been told and absorbs it. "Wow. I didn't know I'll be a life coach at seventeen," he says jokingly to diffuse his own anxiousness.

Leo laughs. "I just know better," he says. "And, I still mess up. At seventeen, there are still some things we don't know. Some lessons, unfortunately, we learn by messing up."

The fourteen year-old smiles a small smile. "Will Marcus ever go away?" he asks.

Leo nods. "Yep. A few months from now," he says. "That would've been it if not for Douglas' mental ex-girlfriend. She brought him back, oh, not even six months ago from when I came from. He's gone again."

"Okay, you've mentioned that Douglas guy a lot. He's our step-uncle, right? Is he good or bad? I'm confused."

"Yeah, he's our step-uncle, and at your point in time, he's not a good guy. He has installed a program called Triton app on your siblings' chips, which gives him full control of them." As the younger him poises to object, he adds, "I know. It's insane and scary. _He's_ insane and scary, and three years from now he's still going to be the same, but only when he's exhausted or in a bad mood or didn't have enough coffee, but trust me, he's going to be one of your closest friends."

"So, I'm going to be close friends with an evil mastermind?"

Leo grins. "It has its perks," he says. "Plus, he's not too bad. He's changed. And he's not as evil as Victor Krane."

"Victor Krane?"

"Yeah. That guy pretty much has his own category," Leo says, standing up. "He was by far the worst enemy our family has ever had."

"What does he do? Is he an evil scientist, too?"

"No. He's a bionic billionaire madman."

The fourteen year-old stands up from the chair and exclaims, "Okay, what is with the world? _Five?_ Adam, Bree, Chase, Marcus, and _that_ guy? Seriously?"

"Well, Marcus is an android…"

"What!"

"Alright, calm down," Leo says. "I know this is too much—"

"Too much? I started off tonight feeling miserable, and now I'm miserable, confused, and scared!" the younger him says. "I'm just fourteen. I mean, I can't handle all of this. What am I supposed to do with this information? You told me not to tell, but – I can't _not_ tell. Big D and Mom and Adam, Bree, and Chase need to know these things."

"They don't need to know anything because they'll learn everything in time, just like you would," Leo reasons. He places his hands on the younger boy's shoulders to steady him. "And these things won't come at you all at once. Year after year is a new adventure."

The fourteen year-old's head hangs low. "What if I mess up? What if I can't protect them from the things that are coming? I…I'm not as strong as they are."

"Yes, you are. What are you talking about?" Leo says with a chuckle. "You're a tough little guy. That is your strength. Don't sell yourself short."

The fourteen year-old eyes him drily when he begins chuckling at the pun he has unintentionally made. "Ha ha. I know. 'Don't sell yourself short.' _I'm_ short," the boy says bitterly.

"Well, not for long," Leo says.

The younger him heaves a sigh. "Is the future really okay?" he asks concernedly.

"Yep," Leo says with a nod.

"And you said you're only here because of an experiment, right?"

"Yes. Big D and Douglas are testing the little time travel capsule that they invented, and they chose us to go."

The boy nods. "Well, at least in the future Big D's going to trust me with more things," he muses.

"Yeah, a bit more, I guess."

The fourteen year-old smiles up at him. "Everybody's okay, right?"

"Right."

"Mom and Big D?"

"Still happily married. They're both living at Mission Creek still. Oh, well, here, actually."

"'They'? What about Adam, Bree, and Chase? What about you?"

"Bree and Chase are not with us anymore."

"They died?!"

"No, no. They're just busy with other responsibilities." Leo smiles. "Years from now, you'll meet three new people: Oliver, Kaz, and Skylar Storm—"

"Skylar Storm? You mean the comic book superhero?"

Leo smirks. "Superheroes are real," he says.

The fourteen year-old narrows his eyes. "I don't believe you."

Leo shrugs. "I don't expect you to," he says, "but I've been to the future, and you haven't."

His younger self thinks about it. "What do they have to do with us?" he asks.

"They're friends of ours, and currently Bree and Chase are working with them," Leo says. "That's why they're not with us. They're busy saving people and hunting down bad guys with them."

"Oh. That's nice." He frowns. "What about us? Where are we and Adam?"

"At the Academy. It's an island off the Pacific."

"Academy?"

"It's a facility where other bionic teenagers are trained."

"Wait, what? How many bionic people are there?"

"Eh, a little bit over thirty."

"Thirty? How did that happen? Wait. I don't want to know," the fourteen year-old says, holding up his hands.

"They're a fun bunch, if you ask me," Leo says. "They're very nice."

The boy withdraws to his own thoughts for a moment then comes back with a grin. "You said Pacific right?" he asks. He nods slowly. "Did you take Janelle there? Does she like it?"

"Yeah, she came. She liked it. But, I'm sorry to say this, don't get your hopes up," Leo says. "Remember when the twenty-one year-old version of us from a different timeline came, and the picture of him and Janelle changed after we altered the outcome of the particle collider mission? Yeah, that's because Janelle's not going to stick around. About a month after she visited, we broke up."

"Oh, man. Why?"

"It's complicated."

"Oh, no, you did not just hit me with 'It's complicated'!" the boy says. When he realizes that no answers will be given to him, he sighs. "I knew it. We _are_ going to grow old alone."

"Who said we'll be alone?" Leo says. He draws out a picture he had stored in his pocket then shows it to the younger him.

The fourteen year-old frowns. "Who are these kids?"

"They will be your closest friends. They're fun people, and they'll be there for you when you feel down. You see, Leo? In the future, you won't be alone anymore." Pointing to them one by one, he says, "That's Miller, Era, Storm, Miles, Rocket. That's Charlie and Donovan. We're not really very close to them, but they're good people. Then that's Taylor, and that's Logan." A warm smile comes to his face when he asks, "See that girl right beside me? What do you think of her?"

The fourteen year-old shrugs as he looks at the picture of the blue-eyed blonde girl. "She's pretty," he says.

"I think so, too," Leo says as he slips the picture back in his pocket. "She's my little superhero."

The boy beside him frowns and then gapes. "She's your girlfriend? I'm going to have a bionic girlfriend in the future?"

Leo grins. "Be good to her, okay? She's the sweetest, smartest, most sarcastic girl you'd ever meet. She has a heart of gold," he says. "Don't let her go."

"I won't," the boy says excitedly. He takes a breath then releases it. "I can't believe it. I've never had that many friends in school. No one really likes me. Then, here you are, telling me that I'd be in a school full of bionic teens, and almost half of them like me enough to be my friends."

"Yep. But you know what? Our friends became our friends, not because we did something special, but because we just stayed real." Leo smiles sadly. "Wanting to be somebody great only led us to the worst mistakes we've ever done in our life. Don't make the same mistakes again. Just be happy with who you are, because you'll have a place to fit in."

"It's…kind of hard," the fourteen year-old admits.

"I know," Leo says. "Try anyways."

The boy nods. His brows furrow as a thought occurs to him. "What are we doing on an island filled with bionic people?" he asks.

"We're mentors," Leo says proudly.

"Mentors. Like teachers?"

"Yeah, you can say that."

"But why? We're not bionic."

Leo grins. "You want to see something cool?" He walks over to the cyberdesk then holds his right hand above it. Slowly, he absorbs some energy from it. His hand now glowing, he looks up just in time to see the reaction that accompanies the gasp coming from his younger self. It's obvious that the fourteen year-old won't be able to contain his excitement at what he's just found out, so Leo rushes to him just in time to cover his mouth with his left hand before he screams. "Shh. This is only between us," he says.

The younger boy nods fervently. Once he's free to speak, he says in a hushed squeal, "I'm going to be bionic!"

"Yeah, you will be," Leo says as he neutralizes the energy he has absorbed, glad to see the loneliness and terror gone from his younger version.

"What ability was that?"

"Energy transference. We can absorb energy from any energy sources. It's got lots of good uses."

"That is so cool. I haven't seen that before."

"Yeah. Many other abilities out there in the island," Leo says. "You will also have super strength and laser sphere generation. You'll also be sporting a bionic leg."

"We're not fully bionic?"

Leo says nothing, only smiles.

"Well, I don't care. I have actual abilities. That's all I care about," his younger self tells him happily.

"Good. Always stay positive, dude. Your team needs that."

"My team?"

"Taylor and Logan, in the picture? They are your teammates." Leo nudges him with a smile then says, "You're going to be a mission leader one day."

The fourteen year-old him chuckles in disbelief. "I'm going to have a good life," he says to himself.

"No. You _have_ a good life right now," Leo corrects him. "You have a family that loves you. You need to protect them. That's the opportunity you have." He looks at his watch when he hears it beep. Three minutes left. He leads his fourteen year-old self back to the chair to sit him down. "I have something to give you," he says. He withdraws a glossy card from his pocket then hands it to the younger boy.

His younger self frowns after he looks at it. "A game card?"

"Put it in your pocket so you won't lose it."

As he does what he's told, the boy asks, "What's it for?"

"It's something you have to always remember from this point on. Years ago, when I was your age, I found that in one of my pockets. I couldn't remember where I got it from or who gave it to me. Then, after Big D and Douglas walked me through this whole time travel thing last week and that card fell out of a book Chase gave me two years ago last night, I figured it out." He smiles. "This is the best gift I could give you from the future."

"Okay."

Leo adjusts the timer on the neuro scrambler to twenty minutes. Then, he double-checks it to see if it's correct.

"What's that for?" the fourteen year-old asks.

"This? This is to keep our future stable," Leo says. He holds it up. "Stay cool, man." Then, he clicks on it.

After the light that flashed stuns the younger him, he quickly leaves the room. He has a few seconds before his fourteen year-old self snaps back to his surroundings, his memory of the past twenty minutes erased, and he wants him to have no recollection at all of him being there. Plus, he only got so long until the elements in the test suit activates, sending it and everything in it back to the point of origin.

Getting back to the maintenance room, he rushes to get the test suit on. He's thankful then that he's had lots of practice with his own mission suit, or else this would be catastrophic and nerve-wracking. At thirty seconds before activation, he's securing the last strap. He picks up his helmet in a hurry, locks it in, clicks the button on the wall to hide the override system, and then secures the neuro scrambler in one of the pockets. In his rush, he fails to realize that a small cut has been made on the suit due to the hurried movements.

He stands still, and then counts down to five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

He feels a sharp increase in the temperature inside the test suit as the first jolt comes. It's not as strong as it was when it came from the machines surrounding the capsule, but he still felt it. Keeping his eyes on the transparent screen of his helmet, he sees the room blur with an invisible current, most likely a result from the chemical reaction taking place within the reserves.

The second jolt comes just as when the room around him vanishes into a murky flood, but unlike the second charge at the capsule, the force accompanying it is much stronger that it knocks the breath out of him. He manages to stay on his feet after staggering, but he knows something has gone wrong. The test suit is getting too hot, almost to the point of searing him, and the built-in system in the helmet confirms this. There's also a sickening fume streaming in, something metallic and seemingly poisonous, and it's beginning to suffocate him. Leo coughs it out as it burns his throat, but it seems inescapable.

The third jolt comes as a strong impact, knocking him off his feet and bringing him down to his hands and knees. He feels as if steel walls at both sides of him have suddenly slammed together to crush him. Every muscle in his body hurt, and his bones feel like they have been shattered to pieces.

However, what agonizes him the most is the lack of breathable air in his lungs. His throat seems to have closed off, leaving him gasping for air.

"We did it! We really did it!" Leo hears his stepfather cheering over the intercom as he focuses on the pristine floor beneath him. Panic is beginning to set in, and he needs to ground himself to something. "Leo, you're okay, right?" Donald asks excitedly.

"Yeah, the kid's fine," Douglas says, a smile evident in the tone of his voice. "He's a tough one."

Leo gasps for air. "I…I can't…"

"Leo?"

 _You're okay. You're okay,_ he tells himself frantically as his head begins swimming. "Help…Please…" he begs, the words coming out as wheezes.

He doesn't hear the short stint of silence, followed by his stepfather's manic attempts to get into the room. He barely even sees the inventor nearly break down the door to get to him, with his step-uncle following right behind him. All he's aware of is that someone has twisted the helmet to unlock it then pulled it off him. He barely gets to the part where his stepfather and his step-uncle help him up to loosen the test suit because a fog descends all around him, taking him somewhere wide and empty.

. . .

Three days pass, and Leo finds himself sitting in an isolation ward in Davenport Industries. Right beside the bed that he has occupied for the past few days sits a hulking piece of breathing machine, clicking and whirring intimidatingly as it releases oxygen into the mask that he's pressing against his face. He watches his step-uncle with interest as he gives him instructions. "Alright. Breathe in, count one, two, three. Then…" Douglas breathes out, demonstrating what he wants his step-nephew to do. "Do it slowly. You want your lungs to be able to hold in much air."

With a smirk, Leo takes off the breathing mask before asking, "Am I having breathing treatments or singing lessons?"

Douglas glowers at him. He switches off the machine then says, "You don't need this anymore, I see."

Leo laughs as his step-uncle snatches the mask from his hand. "Oh, come on, Douglas. I was just trying to make this fun!" he says. "I've been off commission for a while. I'm getting bored."

Douglas grumbles something incoherent as he puts the machine back in the way he found it.

Leo regards him with a half-grin. Because he and his stepfather came into the test area before the radiation fully cleared out, they, too, had to spend some time in that isolation ward with him. They didn't stay there as long as he has because the following morning their test results came back relatively clean (there's a low level of radiation found in their systems, but it wasn't harmful), but even in that few hours he managed to annoy the once rogue scientist.

By now, Leo knows his jokes must be grating on his step-uncle's nerves, but he's really just trying to lighten up the mood.

"Okay, we've got your final test results here, buddy, and it looks like you're good to go," Donald says with a smile as he strides into the room, sheets of paper clipped within his hands. "Just wait an hour, and then we'll take you back home."

Leo smiles. "Great. That's the best news I've heard all day."

"What happened to the high levels of radiation?" Douglas asks as he joins his brother then scans the results.

Donald shrugs. "Don't know. Must've been inaccurate. It's mostly gone from his system now…"

As the two men speak to each other, Leo slowly begins to feel queasy. Then, he feels a soft current of electricity travel from the crown of his head to the rest of his body. Something isn't right. When a possibility occurs to him, he hurriedly retrieves the book he asked his mother to bring for him then searches frantically for that one assurance that his trip to the past hasn't affected anything in the present.

He sighs a breath of relief when he doesn't find the game card he's given his fourteen year-old self three days ago. That it's not there means everything has progressed exactly the way they've had these past three years. He, his stepfather, and his step-uncle were able to conduct that time travel, which led to him taking that card to the past and leaving it nowhere to be found today.

He smiles. That card has been something that had kept him going even though he didn't know before where it came from. It constantly kept his hope alive for what's coming for some reason. Now, he understands. As someone who's seen the bigger picture, he knows that things aren't as bad as it had seemed three years ago.

 _The future is brighter than it appears_ , that card has said. Briefly he wonders what his twenty-one year old version would tell him if he visits him right at that moment. Are there more exciting things waiting for him in the future? Where would he be at that point in time?

"I know. I don't get it either. We were very meticulous with looking over that test suit," Donald agrees with his brother. He turns around, saying, "Leo, are you sure you…"

Leo raises his brows as he watches his stepfather search around the room in confusion for a moment. "Am I sure I what, Big D?" he says.

"Leo?"

"Where's that kid?" Douglas mutters as he looks around.

Leo chuckles. "I'm sitting right here, Douglas," he says, amused but also puzzled at their behavior.

"Where?"

Leo waves his hand. "Right here. On the bed," he says. He picks up the book from the pillow then waves it. He watches as his stepfather's eyes slightly widen as he looks at his general direction. He's going to ask what's wrong when he feels another current run through him.

"Oh no," Donald says as he finally looks at him.

Leo ignores the queasy feeling and asks instead, "What? What did I do?"

"You don't know? You didn't feel anything just now?" Douglas asks.

"Uh…no…Not really. I'm feeling a little sick, but I've been feeling this way since last night anyways, before the last test," he says. "Why? Is something wrong?"

Douglas regards him worriedly. Meanwhile, his stepfather looks at him with an unsettling expression, and that somewhat frightens him. "Leo," Donald says, "you just turned invisible."

Leo only stares at first. He's set on telling them how good of a prank that was, because they did scare him, when he remembers the card. _The future is brighter than it appears._

 _Maybe that's one of the things twenty-one year old you would tell you. That because of the time traveling accident, one day, you'll be capable of turning invisible without bionics,_ he thinks.

Leo scoff-laughs.

Oh how fickle and funny the future is.

* * *

 _Reviews are always appreciated!_


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